Tesla Full Self-Driving Upgrade Price Increase Is Now Live
Tesla has officially upped the price of its new Full Self-Driving (FSD) feature for all of the available models on its site. The price hike of an additional $2,000 puts the total cost of adding FSD capabilities up to $10,000, and follows the initial announcement confirming the price rise was on the way.
Dating back to 2014, all Tesla cars were shipped with sensors and the software to support the Autopilot feature. Since then, Tesla has upgraded that equipment multiple times toward the to eventual goal of full self-driving capabilities in the future. Three weeks ago, CEO Elon Musk tweeted that FSD tech would be rolling out in beta testing, but only for a very select few. Most recently, Musk revealed that the upgrade fee for the FSD feature would be increasing by an additional $2,000.
After a visit to build any of the models currently available on Tesla's website, customers will notice that the shiny new $2,000 increase is now active. While spending an additional $10,000 instead of $8,000 for full self-driving capabilities (someday) might not seem like a huge deal to someone spending over $100k on a Tesla Model X or Model S, it could make a huge difference to someone spending less than $40,000 on a Standard Model 3. While the potential of this technology is tremendous, its still at this point just that... potential. The questions that still remain for Tesla customers are, why the sudden increase and is FSD really worth the $10,000 right now?
So why the sudden price change? Unfortunately Tesla has not offered any explanation behind the $2,000 increase and no longer employees a PR team to handle such matters. Perhaps the technology is going to take more time and resources than originally anticipated, or maybe the FSD can do even more than originally announced. For now, customers and fans of the automaker alike must draw their own conclusions based on the limited amount of information available. According to the Tesla site, Autopilot still comes standard on all its models. This includes the ability for one's car to steer, accelerate and brake automatically for both other vehicles and pedestrians within its lane. Additionally, Tesla has changed the name of the add-on column to actually use the term "full self-driving capability," and lists a bunch of features drivers can expect to utilize for the additional ten grand.
One of the added capabilities is that the FSD option can navigate while on Autopilot, automatically driving from highway on-ramps to off-ramps which includes interchanges and the overtaking of slower cars. FSD Teslas can also make automatic lane changes while driving on the highway. Furthermore, a Tesla with the FSD capability can utilize previous features like "Autoparking" in both parallel and perpendicular spaces and "Summon" in which a parked car will come find the owner anywhere in a lot. Under those current features still sits an upcoming upgrade called "Autosteer on city streets." This TBD feature could mean more of the fully autonomous driving Tesla has been teasing for years, but there is no timeline yet on when that will become a reality. For now, the price hike is merely a drop in the bucket compared to the price of a customized Tesla, but it will be up to the customer whether they think the capability for FSD is worth the extra cash at this time.
Source: Tesla